Thursday Open Thread | Jill Scott Week

Posted on August 6, 2015 by rikyrah

Ms Jill Scott

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69 Responses to Thursday Open Thread | Jill Scott Week

  1. eliihass says:
    August 6, 2015 at 10:41 pm

    https://twitter.com/MoreMag/status/629027000011915264/photo/1

    Last chance to get your copy of this historic and fantastic issue of MORE magazine guest-edited by our spectacular FLOTUS…

    It’ll be gone in a few days..If you haven’t gotten your copy, go get it now! And while you’re at it, grab a few copies for friends and family…They’ll not only thank you now, but in the future when it becomes a collector item which it will. First time a sitting First Lady has fully guest-edited a magazine…And it’s very well done too!

    Reply
  3. Liza says:
    August 6, 2015 at 6:26 pm

    Carly is good for a laugh, not much else.

    Carly Fiorina is going to drive the terrorists into the ground like they're a tech company. #GOPdebate pic.twitter.com/13oVyIIoOU— Wonkette (@Wonkette) August 6, 2015

    Reply
  4. Liza says:
    August 6, 2015 at 6:20 pm

    So, Bobby Jindal actually said this, the most OVERUSED talking point spoken by wing-nuts when they “discuss” immigration. What a clown.

    "Immigration without assimilation is an invasion." -Bobby Jindal 👀 pic.twitter.com/5vIUNkRCMA— Bree Newsome (@BreeNewsome) August 6, 2015

    Reply
  5. rikyrah says:
    August 6, 2015 at 6:16 pm

    Allan Brauer‏@allanbrauer
    Dear @SenateDems, in future campaigns for higher office, your vote on #IranDeal will be as determinative as the Iraq war vote.

    Reply
  6. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 6, 2015 at 5:19 pm

    Just finished up cooking so I’ll be ready for the GOP debate clown show.

    Baked chicken
    mashed potatoes w/gravy
    cabbage
    cornbread muffins
    Dr Pepper!

    *waves* @ Liza

    Reply
  7. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 6, 2015 at 3:50 pm
    Reply
    • eliihass says:
      August 6, 2015 at 6:51 pm

      They hate anyone intruding upon and messing with their best laid plans and their sense of entitlement…

      He and Hillary feel they are supposed to glide right into the White House with zero obstacles and zero interference…

      Reply
  8. rikyrah says:
    August 6, 2015 at 3:23 pm

    Mitch McConnell Sees No Government Shutdown Over Planned Parenthood Fight

    Senate Majority Leader appears at odds with conservative Republican base, as issue reverberates in presidential race
    Aug. 6, 2015 2:19 p.m. ET

    WASHINGTON—Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) on Thursday beat back suggestions that a fight over federal funding for Planned Parenthood would end in a government shutdown this fall, putting him at odds with the conservative wing of the Republican base as the issue spreads into the presidential race.
    http://www.wsj.com/articles/mitch-mcconnell-sees-no-government-shutdown-over-planned-parenthood-fight-1438885173

    Reply
  9. rikyrah says:
    August 6, 2015 at 3:22 pm

    How Jon Stewart Helped Royally Screw 500,000 Black People

    Tommy Christopher on August 06, 2015
    As Jon Stewart‘s 16-year run as influential host of The Daily Show comes to an end this week, it has become all the rage to look back at the targets of his satirical death ray and assess the effects of his influence. On his next-to-last broadcast, Stewart did a bit of this himself, and concluded that all of his “eviscerations” hadn’t amounted to much in the way of tangible change. Sadly, he’s not completely correct about that, because there is at least one seismic change that he can lay partial claim to.

    It is sadly ironic that in assessing the power of Jon Stewart’s influence, the one thing that stands out is the time he most badly misused it. In September of 2009, James O’Keefe began releasing what would become a conservative media mainstay: deceptively edited undercover videos designed to take out ideological foes, in this case an organization called the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN). It was an overtly racialized attack on an organization that had spent nearly 30 years fighting for primarily black communities, and had long been the target of conservative ire for the crime of registering lots of black voters, and fighting for voting rights.

    At first, the videos didn’t catch on much beyond Fox News, but then Jon Stewart did a lengthy segment on the tapes, excoriating mainstream journalists for getting “scooped” by O’Keefe, and shaming news organizations into (badly) covering the story. What followed was a bill to defund ACORN, and a few short months later, the dissolution of ACORN in April of 2010. The rub here is that ACORN was repeatedly cleared of wrongdoing, and O’Keefe actually wound up paying a $100,000.00 settlement to one of the ACORN employees who appeared in the videos.

    Alas, by the time the media got around to jettisoning O’Keefe for attacking a nice white lady, the damage had been done, and ACORN was no more. A 500,000-strong organization dedicated to fighting for black communities was winked out of existence for nothing, and Republicans (with help from the Supreme Court) continued to erode voting rights.

    http://thedailybanter.com/2015/08/how-jon-stewart-helped-royally-screw-500000-black-people/

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      August 6, 2015 at 5:19 pm

      That was a sad story about ACORN.

      Reply
    • eliihass says:
      August 6, 2015 at 7:04 pm

      I’ve always had reservations about Jon Stewart…

      And Wyatt Cenac’s account of his encounter with Jon (which by the way I believe was a more toned down and sanitized version of actual happenings), only helped support my sense of Jon Stewart..

      Jon’s refusal to address it, (getting his attack dogs to insult Wyatt instead), and Jon suddenly showing up on Larry Wilmore’s show to show just how down with the brothers he is, (as many a supposed progressive are wont to do when called out on their ‘latent’ racism), only confirmed those feelings..

      Using one black person to try to cover up ones racist disrespect and put down of other black people, is standard procedure and par for the course for too many white conservatives and liberals alike…

      Reply
  15. rikyrah says:
    August 6, 2015 at 1:56 pm

    BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA AH AH

    ……………..

    Maine Supreme Court to LePage: You Botched Those Vetoes

    ByTIERNEY SNEED
    Published AUGUST 6, 2015, 2:36 PM EDT

    The Maine State Supreme Court said Thursday that the 65 pieces of legislation that Gov. Paul LePage missed the deadline to veto should be considered laws. The justices sided with state lawmakers who refused to take up the vetoes in mid-July because the typical 10 day period the governor has to act on legislation had lapsed.

    LePage argued that lawmakers had taken a type of adjournment that prevented him from returning the vetoes, and under the state constitution he was allowed him to wait until legislators reconvened for more than three days to send back the bills. Statehouse leaders of both parties, as well as most legal experts, had disagreed with the governor’s interpretation of the constitution.

    The justices — issuing an opinion in what is known as a “solemn occasion” that was requested by the governor — said the state constitution was “ambiguous” on the issue, but that “context, governmental tradition and practice, and judicial precedent” had guided their decision.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/maine-supreme-court-lepage-veto-war?utm_content=bufferfb7f4&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

    Reply
  17. rikyrah says:
    August 6, 2015 at 1:49 pm

    Ponnuru: GOP Has Earned Their Trump

    by BooMan
    Thu Aug 6th, 2015 at 11:51:44 AM EST

    It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Ramesh Ponnuru is feeling a little bitter that his advice was not taken prior to the midterm elections and that now the Republican Party finds itself in a pickle with nothing to show in Congress and an electorate that seems hellbent on nominating a reality-show star.

    You probably won’t be surprised to learn that Ponnuru rejects the claim that the Republicans’ only two options were “trying to prove they could govern with Obama or engaging in an endless series of showdowns with him.” They had a third option, which was was to listen to the Reformicons.

    A third alternative would have been to advance a governing agenda of their own, ideally during the midterm campaign, on issues such health care, taxes and higher education. That strategy wouldn’t have resulted in the enactment of a lot of Republican bills, since Democrats could still have filibustered them. But Republicans would have been standing for something more attractive than they are today — not a high bar — and making Senate Democrats pay some price for obstruction.

    And maybe the party’s own voters wouldn’t be quite so heartily sick of them.

    On that last point, that the rise of Donald Trump is best explained by the party base’s disenchantment with the party establishment, it’s a theme I began hitting on as soon as Trump began to really catch on. It’s nice to see it gaining currency. Yesterday, it was Joshua Green and today it is Ponnuru:

    Republicans are in a funk on the eve of the first presidential-primary debate. The party’s popularity has dipped, largely because Republican voters are souring on it. Their lack of confidence in their party surely has something to do with Donald Trump’s rise in the polls. Bitterness between conservative groups and the Senate Republican leadership is at a peak, with the former saying the latter are too devoted to keeping corporate welfare programs like the Export-Import Bank alive and insufficiently committed to defunding Planned Parenthood.

    It took a while for it to sink in, but people are beginning to realize that the Republicans did this to themselves by poisoning the minds of their supporters with hyped threats, easy (yet unrealizable) solutions, and a bunch of false promises. At some points, they haven’t been able to deliver even when they go so far as to shut down the government and cause a downgrade in our nation’s credit rating. At other points, they haven’t even tried. And then there’s the really damaging stuff:

    http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2015/8/6/115144/6541

    Reply
  19. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 6, 2015 at 1:01 pm
    Reply
  21. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 6, 2015 at 12:28 pm

    Look at this fuckery, Chicas!

    Reply
    • rikyrah says:
      August 6, 2015 at 12:36 pm

      UH HUH
      UH HUH

      Reply
    • eliihass says:
      August 6, 2015 at 7:53 pm

      Short-changing the Democratic party and the electorate all just to ‘manage’ Hillary’s fragile ‘image’…

      If this is how political races are run, and all we need is the protection of the grand poobahs of the party – and subsequent tampering with otherwise routine procedure to exclude others and to fully benefit one, we should all sign up to run for office…

      Frankly, our party does itself and all of us a big disservice; We will have lost so much from this maneuvering to cater exclusively to Hillary’s whims and ‘inevitability’..

      We haven’t built up capacity in terms of grooming the next generation of principled Democrats to ascend, we aren’t engaging or educating those dormant and even previously active Democrats – getting them excited and invested enough to not only show up at the polls, but to stay engaged at every level…

      People are not only disgusted by this corruption of the process just to benefit one candidate, but dismayed and now distrustful of not just the process, but politics and politicians as a whole…

      When I see a Cleveland, Ohio woman who voted twice for President Obama telling Chris Matthews that freaking John Kasich is a ‘good’ option she’s looking at for 2016, I want to cry…

      Democrats have to do much better…There’s got to be a plausible and credible party and party structure for the future or we are in trouble…The GOP being in a mess of their own is no consolation –

      Reply
  22. Ametia says:
    August 6, 2015 at 12:12 pm

    ICYMI

    Reply
    • rikyrah says:
      August 6, 2015 at 1:51 pm

      from POTUS speech:

      Between now and the congressional vote in September, you are going to hear a lot of arguments against this deal, backed by tens of millions of dollars in advertising. And if the rhetoric in these ads and the accompanying commentary sounds familiar, it should, for many of the same people who argued for the war in Iraq are now making the case against the Iran nuclear deal.

      Now, when I ran for president eight years ago as a candidate who had opposed the decision to go to war in Iraq, I said that America didn’t just have to end that war. We had to end the mindset that got us there in the first place.

      It was a mindset characterized by a preference for military action over diplomacy, a mindset that put a premium on unilateral U.S. action over the painstaking work of building international consensus, a mindset that exaggerated threats beyond what the intelligence supported.

      Leaders did not level with the American people about the costs of war, insisting that we could easily impose our will on a part of the world with a profoundly different culture and history.

      And, of course, those calling for war labeled themselves strong and decisive while dismissing those who disagreed as weak, even appeasers of a malevolent adversary.

      More than a decade later, we still live with the consequences of the decision to invade Iraq. Our troops achieved every mission they were given, but thousands of lives were lost, tens of thousands wounded. That doesn’t count the lives lost among Iraqis. Nearly a trillion dollars was spent.

      Today, Iraq remains gripped by sectarian conflict, and the emergence of al-Qaida in Iraq has now evolved into ISIL. And ironically, the single greatest beneficiary in the region of that war was the Islamic Republic of Iran, which saw its strategic position strengthened by the removal of its long-standing enemy, Saddam Hussein.

      [snip]

      I recognize that resorting to force may be tempting in the face of the rhetoric and behavior that emanates from parts of Iran. It is offensive. It is incendiary. We do take it seriously.

      But superpowers should not act impulsively in response to taunts or even provocations that can be addressed short of war. Just because Iranian hardliners chant “Death to America” does not mean that that’s what all Iranians believe. In fact, it’s those…

      In fact, it’s those hardliners who are most comfortable with the status quo. It’s those hardliners chanting “Death to America” who have been most opposed to the deal. They’re making common cause with the Republican Caucus.

      Reply
  23. TyrenM says:
    August 6, 2015 at 12:07 pm

    Good morning 3 Chics,
    I’m loving Jill Scott Week. Just this weekend I watched her interview with the Breakfast Club. Beautiful inside and out. Tonight’s “entertainment,” the Klown Kar Konversation on Fox.

    Have a great day all.

    Reply
  24. rikyrah says:
    August 6, 2015 at 12:06 pm

    Many top Republican candidates are spending less time in New Hampshire

    By Jenna Johnson August 4 

    MANCHESTER, N.H. — It seemed clear this week why Republican presidential hopeful Scott Walker isn’t planning to spend much time here in New Hampshire.

    During an hour-long stop at a pizza parlor on Monday, voters grilled him on immigration and how he would combat the Islamic State. Liberal activists tricked him into posing with a fake check from billionaire donors. And outside, a protester jumped on top of a car and shouted, “You’re afraid to answer the real questions!”

    Like many other GOP candidates, Walker is spending relatively little time campaigning in this state, which holds the nation’s first primary, banking instead on winning the Iowa caucuses and then stockpiling delegates in the South and elsewhere.

    “For us, we’re running a nationwide campaign; we’re not just running an early-state campaign,” Walker said at a cheese
    steak shop in Philadelphia last week. “With the quality of the field . . . it may go as far as even being close to the convention before we know who the ultimate nominee is.”

    Walker’s approach is a part of a broader trend that threatens to make New Hampshire less crucial than it has been in past contests, the result of an enormous GOP field, an increasingly nationalized primary race and a new cluster of early primary contests in the Republican-rich South.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/many-top-gop-candidates-are-spending-less-time-in-new-hampshire/2015/08/04/9afcc226-3aa9-11e5-9c2d-ed991d848c48_story.html?tid=trending_strip_3

    Reply
  27. rikyrah says:
    August 6, 2015 at 11:37 am

    Planned Parenthood Responds After Violations Reported at 4 Clinics
    Updated: Wed 9:57 PM, Aug 05, 2015

    By: Associated Press
    August 5, 2015

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida officials say three of the 16 Planned Parenthood facilities inspected last week were performing procedures beyond their licensing authority, and one facility was not keeping proper logs relating to fetal remains.

    The Agency for Health Care Administration released its report Wednesday. It says clinics in St. Petersburg, Fort Myers and Naples were performing second-trimester abortions when they were only licensed to perform first-trimester abortions. The report also found that a Pembroke Pines clinic was not following its own procedures for the labeling and dating of the disposal of fetal remains.

    Planned Parenthood released a statement saying the licensing violations resulted from the AHCA changing its definitions of gestational periods and that the centers were operating in compliance with Florida law.

    Gov. Rick Scott ordered the inspections last week. He said he was troubled by recent videos describing the organization’s procedures for providing tissue from aborted fetuses for research.

    http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/Gov-Scott-Orders-Inspections-of-Planned-Parenthood-Offices-319573031.html?device=tablet&c=y

    Reply
  29. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 6, 2015 at 10:35 am
    Reply
  34. Ametia says:
    August 6, 2015 at 10:06 am

    Today at 2 p.m. ET, I’m joining President Obama for an important conversation on protecting voting rights — and I hope you’ll join us. Tune in here.

    http://click.mail.whitehouse.gov/?qs=d01f4b1c1ef2add11d07e953f6bcb1b7697d3cf8cf0e2340666f7cb7a4847f07ff645a44d1836a17

    Reply
  36. rikyrah says:
    August 6, 2015 at 10:05 am

    Existing While Black.

    …………..

    Wesley Lowery ✔ @WesleyLowery

    6 in 10 black men say they personally have been treated unfairly by police because of their race http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_AP_POLL_BLACKS_AND_POLICE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT …

    Reply
  38. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 6, 2015 at 9:30 am

    Hey Chicas!

    What do y’all make of Bill Clinton calling Donald Trump? Think they paid him to get in the race to make republicans look bad so Hillary can win? I wouldn’t put anything past the Clintons. I hope Joe Biden runs and beat her once and for all.

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      August 6, 2015 at 10:04 am

      It’s highly likely, SG2. That’s what the Clintons tried to do in 2008, RACE-BAIT. Only this time they’re trying to use Trump as their foil. Non the less, he’s a clown, and the show he is putting on is DISGUSTING.

      I truly LOATHE these folks!

      Reply
    • eliihass says:
      August 6, 2015 at 7:34 pm

      One never knows what to believe when megalomaniacs collide – even on supposedly ‘friendly’ terms…

      It’s fair to say that the Trump/Clinton alliance has always been of the mercenary sort…There’s always been something to be gained materially for both sides…

      I don’t believe for one minute that Trump would ‘voluntarily’ act as a troll for, nor run interference on behalf of the Clintons…His ego is too ‘huge’ for that…

      Clinton probably thought he could tweak Trump’s well-documented ego, and egg him on to throw his hat in (and without letting on to Trump, hope that Trump served to disrupt the GOP and set the stage for Hillary)…While Trump was probably looking to boost his ‘political’ bona fides /’savvy’ with his Clinton ‘connection’…

      What I don’t think Bill foresaw, was a situation where Trump would not only become the front-runner – and having lost his t.v show and ruined business relationships, decide to actually go all out for the prize, and even begin to attack and discredit Hillary to stay ahead of the pack…

      Whatever the deal here, dubious alliances such as these always come back to bite the participants – and worse, implode all around them…

      It’s like entering into a deal with the devil; except in this case both are reflective of the devil..

      And if we think the Clintons are vindictive and messy, Trump is just as bad… And truth be told, has so much less to lose…Bill Clinton needs to retain a semblance of faux-decency to continue to garner attention and rake in speaking fees and other monies in his role as former president and ‘statesman’ – and for his foundation…Trump has no such encumbrances…

      Reply
  39. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 6, 2015 at 9:16 am
    Reply
  40. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 6, 2015 at 9:16 am
    Reply
  41. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 6, 2015 at 9:15 am
    Reply
  42. rikyrah says:
    August 6, 2015 at 8:50 am

    Appeals court balks at Texas voter-ID scheme
    08/05/15 04:24 PM
    By Steve Benen
    After conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, Texas Republicans wasted no time imposing some of the nation’s harshest voting restrictions. And when I say “wasted no time,” I mean that quite literally – GOP state officials acted within hours of the high court ruling to suppress Texans’ ability to vote.

    At the heart of the campaign is the Lone Star State’s voter-ID law – one of the nation’s most ridiculous – which has had the practical effect of disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of Texas voters. Today, as the Associated Press reported, that law was struck down by a federal appeals court.
    The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans said Wednesday that the Texas law, one of the toughest voter ID measures in the country, violates Section 2 of the [Voting Rights Act]. The U.S. Justice Department had joined minority groups in a drawn-out legal battle that has stretched for years.

    A lower court had previously found that the voter ID was passed by the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature with the intent of discriminating against minorities. But in striking down the law, the appeals court did not find the voter ID requirement to be the equivalent of a poll tax.
    Rick Hasen posted the text of the 5th Circuit’s ruling, which was unanimous, online here (pdf). Note, the ruling’s author was appointed to the bench by George W. Bush, which makes it a little tougher for the right to see this as evidence of liberal judicial activism.

    So, is Texas’ odious law no more? Not quite. As Hasen explained, this is “a great (but not complete) victory” for voting advocates. From his Election Law Blog piece:
    The court affirms that the law violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, but rejects the claim of discriminatory purpose and that the law constitutes a poll tax. The court remands for more findings on discriminatory purpose and for a decision on the remedy to the Section 2 violation. That remedy could allow Texas to keep enforcing its law for most people, so long as it gives ways to vote for those who face burdens under the law.

    This is a narrow but important victory coming on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
    ThinkProgress’ Ian Millhiser added, “Though the court did not accept every argument raised against the state’s voter ID law, and its opinion does not go nearly as far as a trial judge’s decision which also struck down this law, it is a significant blow to the state’s efforts to make voting more difficult.”

    At a minimum, Millhiser reported, we can expect to see the Texas law “significantly weakened.”

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/appeals-court-balks-texas-voter-id-scheme

    Reply
  43. rikyrah says:
    August 6, 2015 at 8:49 am

    Jeb Bush starts to develop the wrong kind of reputation
    08/05/15 12:55 PM—UPDATED 08/05/15 01:02 PM
    By Steve Benen
    Yesterday afternoon, Jeb Bush was eager to bash Planned Parenthood for reasons he couldn’t quite explain. It led the Republican presidential hopeful to say, unprompted, “I’m not sure we need half a billion dollars for women’s health issues.”

    The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack, a conservative writer, asked the question on the minds of many:
    “Isn’t one benefit of an establishment candidate supposed to be that he’s not going to make gaffes like this?”
    It’s a safe bet McCormack wasn’t the only conservative asking. Some verbal slip-ups are inevitable for anyone whose public comments are under close scrutiny, and every candidate in both parties will make comments over the course of the campaign that they’ll wish they worded differently.

    That said, Jeb Bush, who entered the race with a reputation for wonky precision and depth of knowledge, is quickly cultivating a very different kind of caricature – one that’s far less flattering.

    For example, Bush recently said he wants to “phase out” Medicare, adding soon after that he didn’t really mean it. (The former governor wants to replace Medicare with a voucher system, which he now believes is totally different from “phasing out” the existing Medicare system.)

    Bush also said he wants Americans to “work longer hours,” only to say he didn’t quite mean that, either. After the Charleston massacre, he said, “I don’t know what was on the mind or the heart of the man who committed these atrocious crimes,” even though the racist motivation was obvious, and aides quickly had to clarify these comments, too. When he tried to talk about ISIS and clumsily got the relevant details wrong, campaign aides scrambled to clarify once more.

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/jeb-bush-starts-develop-the-wrong-kind-reputation

    Reply
  45. rikyrah says:
    August 6, 2015 at 8:20 am

    TV One Is Bringing Donnie Simpson Out of Retirement

    Photo of Tambay A. Obenson
    By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act

    August 5, 2015 at 4:49PM

    Donnie Simpson has inked a multi-year agreement for both radio and television with Radio One (parent company of TV One) that will bring the veteran out of retirement and back both on-air on radio (on WMMJ MAJIC 102.3 FM in D.C.) and as the newest TV One talent.

    Simpson stepped out of the limelight in 2010 culminating a 41 year media career in radio, television and movies.

    As part of the agreement, Simpson will host “The Donnie Simpson Show” afternoons (3p – 7p) on MAJIC 102.3 starting on Monday, August 17th. And on the television side, he will collaborate with TV One (via his Donnie Simpson Productions) to create TV programming that will have Donnie back on TV by the fourth quarter of this year.

    http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/tv-one-is-bringing-donnie-simpson-out-of-retirement-20150805

    Reply
  46. rikyrah says:
    August 6, 2015 at 8:19 am

    Salim and Mara Brock Akil Are Exiting BET and Setting Up Shop at Warner Bros

    Photo of Tambay A. Obenson
    By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act

    August 5, 2015 at 6:54PM

    Wow! This is significant and can’t be good for BET, losing a creative team that has, in essence, helped revitalize the network’s programming offerings (“The Game” and, most recently, “Being Mary Jane”), as well as its overall reputation.

    Announced this afternoon, Salim and Mara Brock Akil are effectively saying goodbye to BET, and setting up shop at Warner Bros. Television (WBTV). The husband-wife creative duo have inked a multiple-year overall deal with the WB via their Akil Productions, which will begin in May 2016, which also happens to be when their agreement with with BET ends. You might recall that, last fall (2014) the Akils extended their then 3-year agreement with the network through 2016.

    As a result of today’s news, Mara Brock Akil will transition from showrunner of BET’s number one program, “Being Mary Jane,” to become “executive consultant” on the series instead; meaning a new showrunner will be named. Although, quite frankly, I wouldn’t at all be surprised if “Being Mary Jane” is eventually canceled, without Brock Akil’s full involvement; after all, she created it! It’s her baby.

    http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/salim-and-mara-brock-akil-are-exiting-bet-and-setting-up-shop-at-warner-bros-20150805

    Reply
  47. rikyrah says:
    August 6, 2015 at 8:17 am

    Gina Prince-Bythewood Voices Frustration over Netflix’s Handling of ‘Beyond The Lights’

    Shadow and Act
    By Sergio | Shadow and Act

    August 5, 2015 at 8:03PM

    What does a black filmmaker have to do to get some respect around here?

    Screenwriter and director Gina Prince-Bythewood is not happy with Netflix over how her last film, “Beyond the Lights,” is being treated by the streaming platform, since its release there, and she has been very public about it over the last few days.

    Specifically, she is upset that the film is being lumped together with other black films only, instead of being marketed as a romantic drama for everyone, regardless of race.

    In the “More Like This” recommendations list of other films that is part of Netflix’s user interface, titles listed with “Lights” include “Being Mary Jane”, “The Favorite Five”, “Pastor Brown”, “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”, “A Mother’s Love” and “Note to Self”. Even episodes of “A Different World” are on the “More Like This” list for “Beyond the Lights.”

    Ms. Prince-Bythewood states that this, in effect, ghettoizes not only her film, but other black films as well, suggesting that these are the only movies that black people want to watch; That black audiences wouldn’t be interested in other romantic films (those that star white leads for example) and, that white audiences wouldn’t be interested in watching similar kinds of films, but with black leads.

    Further, she asks why films like the Johnny Cash biopic, “Walk the Line,” isn’t listed in the “More Like This” section for “Beyond the Lights,” since, in effect, they’re both films about romantic relationships centered around music.

    http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/gina-prince-bythewood-is-plenty-upset-with-netflix-and-their-treatment-of-beyond-the-lights-20150805

    Reply
  48. rikyrah says:
    August 6, 2015 at 7:46 am

    Good Morning, Everyone :)

    Reply
  49. Ametia says:
    August 6, 2015 at 7:38 am

    Good Morning, Everyone.

    Reply

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